Improvement in sewing-machines



J. E. A GIBBS. SEWING MACHINE.

No. 27,214, Patenjted Feb, 21, 1860.

. the needle c.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JAMES E. A. GIBBS. OF MILL POINT, VIRGINIA, ASSIGNOR TO J. O. XVOODS,

OF NE'W YORK CITY. I

IMPROVEMENT IN SEWiNG-MACHINES.

pecification forming part of Letters Patent No. 27,914, dated February21, 1860; ante dated August 21, 1859.

T0 at whom it may concern:

'Be it known that I, J AMES EJ'A. GIBBs, -of Mill Point, Pocahontascounty, and State of Virginia, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Sewing-Machines; and I do hereby declare that thefollowing is a full, clear, and exact description of thesame, referencebeing had to the annexed drawings, makinga part of this specification,in which Figure 1 represents a side elevation of a" ment is capable ofproducing.

In the machine represented in the accompanying drawings, the beam orlever A, which serves to give a reciprocating orup-a11d-down motion atits front end to an eye-pointed needle, a, is shown as attached to arocking shaft, 1), in the rear, supported in suitable bearings, andwhich has an arm, 0, projecting backwardly, that gears with a grooveddrivingwheel, B,'constructed to give for each revolution of it twodouble or up-and-down motions to the needle-beam and needle.

The bobbin 0, which supplies the thread (Z to the reciprocating needle,is here shown in a vertical position,.hung in any desired manner, andhaving its thread pass through eyestuds 6, projecting from apressure-pad beam or lever, D, down to and through the eye of ascorresponding in shape and situated in parallel arrangement to theneedle-beam, and hung to rock, when required, on the shaft of theneedle-beam, with a spring, f, in the rear, that serves to keep down,when not purposely raised to relieve the pad or foot y from pressure onthe cloth, the front end of said pad-lever and its foot with an elasticforce on the cloth which lies 011 the table E; but such press;

ure-pad arrangement and action may be varied at pleasure.

Figs. 4 and 5 represent-,-

The pressure-pad lever is shown The cloth 7; is fed in one of twodirections across the table E under the reciprocating needle c-that is,from right to left, or vice versa, as circumstances and the character ofstitch, as hereinafter explained, require.

The toothed or roughened cloth-feeding bai F is shown to bite andrelease from below through the table on the cloth to efi'ect the feed atintervals of the cloth, as well understood in sewing-machines, said barhaving first a rising and forward motion to bite on the cloth and feedit a short distance on or across the table, and then a releasing or dropand spring-throw or baek'motion, which double action (though using thewell-known devices for such a purpose) of cams or their equivalents andretracting-springs I effect in a novel manner, more particularly asregards the latter device and its action, and for a special purpose.

The cams z i, which actuate the feed, are shown as occupying a verticalposition and operated by, at its front, the main shaftj of thedriving-wheel B, These cams act in concert with bars G G, gearedtogether to secure a united cross-stroke, and provided, either bar, witha leg, is k, against either of which, aecordin g to the set given, togovern the direction of feed. The bars 'G G are hung to admit of asliding or reciprocating motion in direction of the feed. Connected withthe one, G, of these bars is a frame, Z, pivoted to it in the rear by apin, m, so .as toadmit of said frame moving backward and forward in thecross-stroke with the bars G G, but allowing, also, of a lifting anddropping motion by the alternate action and freedom from action on anarm, 2'. This frame Z carries the toothed feeding-bar F, and by thecombinedactions specified of the swinging frame Z, cams it, and crossfeeding-bars G G, governed, as hereinafter explained, by theretractingspring H, are the forward backstroke and up-and-down motion ofthe feed produced. Connected with the rear end of the other slidingcrossbar, G, is the retracting-spring H, which serves to throw back thefeeding mechanism at the required time after the cam which aetuates thefeed ceases to urge and'keep forwardthe feeding-bar. This spring isshown as entered at its one end in a slotted stud, o, projecting fromthe sliding cross-bar G, and connected at its other and lower endmechanism with which said bar is geared to the right or to the left, andso make right or left the retracting line of action of the feedworks toput in gear either one-of the two legs is it of the cross sliding barswith the forward feeding-cam, i,- and in this way may the direction offeed be reversed at pleasure without changing the direction in motion ofthe feeddriving cam or cams.

By giving the springH a neutral position- 1'. e., by turning the forkedlever I so that'said spring exercises no retracting force in eitherdirectionthe legs is k on which the drivingcam operates, are not touchedby the driving-cam i in its rotation, and the feed will be stopped. Theaction of the forked lever I thus to control or reverse the act-ion ofthe retracting-spring T governs and changes at pleasure by simplycausing the forks of said lever 'I to receive within them an eccentricdisk-projection from or on a pivoted hand-le- Iver or handle, J; that,on being thrown over to the right or to the left, or midway, rocks andadjusts the forked lever to give to the spring its opposite retractingforce or neutral character, as specified. The use of asimple mode ofreversing the feed without changing the direction of the general drivingmotion will be presently seen, or at least an important use for such aprovision developed in a portion of the description succeeding this.

Connected withthe feeding mechanism is an arm, q, and lever 1 This leverand arm are for the purpose of stopping the feed in its back throw orstroke at any-required point or distance of travel, and therebyregulating the amount of feed each forward stroke, which,

' of course, determines the length of stitch. The

arm q is connected in the manner of a mere .proj ection from the onesliding bar, G, and the .lever 1*, which hangs on a fulcrum, s,intermediate of its length, is also connected at its upper end with saidbar or the frame moving with it. Thus hung and connected it'will' beevident the feed or lower ends of the bar 9 and lever 1- will alwaysmove in reverse directions when the feed is at work, so that inwhichever direction the feed is set going either the bar or lever willin the retracting action of the spring be thrown outward at its lowerend, and, by

providing an adjustable stop for said lower end of the arm q or lever -rto come in contact with said arm or lever, (according to the directionof feed,) will serve to arrest the throw or stroke of the, feedingmechanism at any re- ,quired point or distance to suit a required Klength of stitch.

The adjustable stop whichlhavehere shown for the bar or lever to operatein concert with to equalize the lengths of stitches in a given set andvary the lengths of stitch in a series of stitches is that of aneccentric disk projecting from or on a pivoted lever or handle, J, thataccordingly as it is' lihl'OWlLOVGl to the right or to the left, ormidway, causes the eccentric disk to arrest sooner or later the arm orlever q or r, and so increase or diminish and make regular, when onceset, the length of feed.

In connection with the reciprocating needle a, I employ a peculiarlyconstructed and ar-' ranged double-hooked discoidal shuttle orthread-case, K, that has its bearing and rotates in and is guided by anopen grooved frame, L,- embracing its periphery. This double-hookedshuttle is shown as driven bythe main shaft j, though in a mannerdisconnected from it, which may be effected by setting said shuttleinclined relatively to the axis of the shaft, as shown in Fig. 1, anddriving the disk by pins t t, which project from a face-plate, M, fastto the shaft, so as to rotate in a path crossing the axis of v the shaftat right angles. By this means the driving-pins t t will, during therotation of the shaft, be made alternatelyto mesh with the shuttle bysuitable openings therein, and alternately to break connection with thelooper, yet keeping up a continuous rotary motion of the latter. Theobject of the driving-pins thus alternately breaking connection with thelooper (and the driving-pins are relatively arranged to meet thisrequirement) is to admit of the needle-thread loop taken by eachhook a ato pass clean over or round the looper in the rotation of the latter. Inthe body of the discoidal looper I arrange a bobbin or reel, N, carryinga second-- ary thread, a, said bobbin being hung, as regards tension andfree rotation, in any suitable manner, so as to permit of the threadbeing drawn from it out onto and over the face of the di'scoidal looperby the action of the needle-thread or needle-thread loops thereon, aswill hereinafter appear. This 'reel N, I prefer to make detachable atpleasure from the looper.

The needle-thread is shown aspassing through the eye of a take-up lever,P, which is actuated by cam onthe, main shaft from the rear; but as thetake-up action may be effected by properly and relatively pitching themotions of the needle'and looper, and as separate takeup devices arecommon, I shall not ,further' refer to such here, besides stating thatthe same may be advantageouslv dispensed.

with. Y

By this my improvement, which I have now described in general and indetail, I am enabled to effect varied and important changes in theaction of sewingmachines. Thus, supposing the feed of the cloth to be indirection of the arrow :0 in Fig. 4, the needle having descended andcarried the needle-thread through the cloth and commenced to retract,the one hook, u, of the looper catches the loop from" the eye of theneedle, and as the looper continues to rotate said loop is drawn,spread, or opened, and held distended by embracing the body of thelooper on either side and below, when, the needle having again descendedand passed through the cloth at a point (by reason of the feed) to theright of the former puncture, and again commenced to retract, asccondloop is caught from the eye of the needle by the other hook, it,and by the former loop, which is then passed off the shuttle'in the rearof it, taking along with it the secondary or binding thread, and drawntight, whereby it will be seen one form of stitch is produced-to wit, achainstitch or series of chain-stitches, interlaced by a secondary orbinding thread, as shown in Fig. 6; or, supposing the reel-or bobbin Ntobe re moved, then the wellknown tambour or common chain-stitch onlywould be produced or by reversing the direction of feed by the means Ihave before'specified, or by other suitable means, so that the clothmoves in direction of the arrow Z in Fig. 5, then each fresh loop fromthe eye of the needle being taken by either one hook of thedouble-hooked shuttle or threadcase in advance, as it were, relatively,of the two loops to the travel of said hook, the former loop, taking thebinding-thread along with it, will be passed oft" the shuttle on therear of its motion without having received through it the second orsuecee ding loop, whereby isv produced what is known as the lockstitch.

Having thus described sufliciently in detail a sewing-machineconstructed according to my improvements, I would here observe, by wayof further elucidation of one portion of my invention, that saidimprovement consists in something more than the mere production of anyof the within-mentioned particular kinds of stitches, as, while inprevious machine-sewing the well-known double-thread lock andsingle-thread tambour-stitches have been produced automatically, orwithout the aid of the hand, other descriptions of stitching have invarious kinds of fancy and other work been made either wholly or in partby hand, and it is immaterial or irrelevant to my present improvementwhether the other or interlaced chain-stitch herein described has or hasnot before been produced wholly by thread has been interlaced wit-h thelatter by, for instance, a peculiar and timely hand-feed of the clothcarrying the loops, and which hand-feed, though acting in concert withmachineryto aid in theinterlacing and interlocking of the loops, wouldvirtually go to form a mere hand production of the stitch orhandthreading of the loops with a binding-thread interlacing them, as incase of the hand stopping to feed the cloth, or failing to feed it in aproper direction and at a proper time relatively to the action of themechanical devices acting in concert, no such stitch or series ofstitches would or could be produced. ,This, however, is not so with thecombination of parts or devices herein shown and described, and by thenI am enabled to produce automatically and entirely by the aid ofmachinery an interlaced chain-stitch, or by a certain construction ofparts either of the three before-mentioned stitches at pleasure, andwith that exactness and uniformity which distinguishes machine fromother sewing. I therefore do not claim the mere production of anyparticular stitch or series of stitches, nor the use therefor of, incombination, merely a rotary hook, needle, and bobbin, which threedevices, acting in concert, are common to the lVheeler 85 Wilson andother machines; but

\Vhat I do claim isv 1. The mechanical production of the interlacedchain-stitch in an organized sewing-machine by thecombination, with thereciprocating eye-pointed needle and discoidal threadcase or rotaryhookand bobbin, or their equivalents, of the herein-described automatic feed'ing mechanism to the cloth, when so arranged in relation to andoperating in concert with the said devices as to cause each loop takenfrom the needle to be carried by the hook through the preceding loop,substantially in the manner described.

2. The combination and arrangement, substantially as described, of theeye-pointed needle, discoidal, thread-case, provided with twoloop-taking hooks, with an automatic feed mechanism operating in themanner set forth, so that a mere change in the direction of the feedshall effect the difference described between the several stitches.

In witness whereof I have hereunto subscribed my name.

JAMES E. A.-GIBBS. Witnesses:

'S. H. MAYNARD, THOMAS DUOEY.

